Why I Support Restructuring Special Education

By W Charles "Charles" Perry

Our district spends roughly $7 million more on special education students than is provided by the state. We must reduce this deficit by restructuring how special educations services are provided. This will require negotiating new pay scales with the union, bringing these services in house, creating a special education pre-school, and gaining parent & community support for the program.

Expensive medical care provided under the guise of education is only one source of our expense. Parents get to send their special education students to private schools beginning at age 3 and our district must pay for their choice of school. These private schools have no incentive to compete on price because they have their fiscal snouts firmly stuffed into the public money trough. We pay for full-time private aides to accompany a single student daily and not assist other students in the classroom even if they have the time and ability.

In some instances our district could not serve these special education students even if it wanted to because it cannot hire the qualified staff. Our union will not allow special allowances for special education teachers so the qualified candidates are hired by private companies at a higher rate. These companies then add their overhead and profit to these teacher's salaries and hire them back to the district at double the rate.

Reversing this trend will require several steps. First, the unions must allow special allowances for special education teachers so we can offer competitive salaries. Second, we must bring more of these students under our districts direct care to establish a successful track record that will encourage parents to trust us with their children instead of the private schools. Third, we must start a pre-school program for special education students. Parents tend to keep their children in the schools where they start them.

Our district has started this process, but it must continue. This will require the support of our parents and community at large to provide the public pressure on our unions, politicians, and private schools. We all empathize and sympathize with parents of special education students - there but for the grace of God go we. However, we must balance the good of the individual student against the good of the entire student population when we make the difficult decisions involved with special education.